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Inspired by a thread on sweet spot for which car to buy, this one is for when you decide to get rid of one? I suppose one approach is when yearly repair expenses reach a certain point... ? But when something major breaks, I imagine you have to have an expensive fix anyway before upgrade in...

Hi folks, have you ever had a professional review an SPIA contract? I was told I'd have 7 days after SPIA purchase to review the contract and back out and I wonder if I need to line up someone for that period of time. Apparently I can't get a sample contract prior to purchase.

For some reason, I assumed average retirement age in US was around 65... According to this article Average US Retirement Age Is 61 And Rising , it used to be 57 in the 90s and now is climbing to 61...

Well, I don't think this "FIRE and Money" forum will exist if this professor's ideas come to pass... and this is from New York University's Stern School of Business ... Wonder how many students this guy teaches... Please note: this is not about politics - just about basic ability to FIRE in an...

Sorry if I missed a thread on this... apparently there is a new study, The August 2011 issue of the Journal of Financial Planning included the paper, "Can We Predict the Sustainable Withdrawal Rate for New Retirees", by Wade D. Pfau, Ph.D., questioning 4-percent rule...

I am helping someone pick a Medicare plan, who can afford to spend ~10k per year on medical care in the worst-case scenario. A newbie question came up - is it possible to get financially ruined by someone with Medicare plan, and if so, under what cases? I know Medicare does not cover Nursing...

FIRECalc, 4% rule, etc. - are they not producing a false sense of security? I know this was discussed some time ago but I was just analyzing how come I don't feel secure with them when many people seem to rely on these for their planning, at least to some degree. So I think I understand why...

Does it make sense to save in HSA accounts given the healthcare reforms (and that HSA savings can only be used primarily for health bills)? Does the value of these HSAs diminish after 2014 or is there still going to be a lot of out-of-pocket expenses? Are you thinking about contributing less...

It used to be that to qualify for better rates and such my credit union wanted me to use online billpay, which I happily did for a long time... Now, I guess they decided (or figured out?) it should be the other way around - to qualify for free bill pay I have to do a bunch of other things... in...

I have a (single) relative around 69 y.o. who is receiving SS and not in great health. He can repay SS he had received since he was around 66. How would one decide whether this makes sense? First, is there a formula to know how much he would start receiving? My understanding is it's current...

Who do (or did) you share your salary and other compensation with? Children? When do you tell them? At certain age or maturity level? Parents? Siblings? Other relatives? Aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, etc. Friends? Were there cases when you shared this info with others but then were sorry...

Somewhat of a taboo subject at my megacorp... I wonder what you are doing to figure out what your compensation should be (or what you used to do when you were working)? Aside from your management chain do (did) your other coworkers know about your salary, how a big a raise you got this year...

Lately, almost every financial institution I deal with is sending me you-have-to-explicitly-sign-up-for-overdraft letters. I usually discard these, but when my "main" one asked me the same thing, it sounded like there is no downside. It's free (with them at least). They claim without overdraft...

Warning: this is a rant... Just spent hours tracking down doctors accepting a Medicare advantage plan for someone I know. First, health insurance plan website lists a bunch of doctors that would accept them right there. So, you'd think this is simple - just pick one from the list... but no, you...

What do retired folks do for eye insurance while on medicare? If someone is developing an eye problem like cataracts, what would they be looking at in terms of coverages and expenses? Thanks!

I'd like to recommend a book for a couple of teens (ages 15-19). Both teens are - not interesting in finances - grew up in financially responsible family and themselves are very responsible with money (did not even want a credit card when offered); although I would not say they are too frugal...

What would be your SWR if you retired at 40? While 4% SWR for a 65-year-old is a known rule of thumb, I am curious how it gets affected by time. So, for example, for a 40-year-old, what would you be comfortable with?

I don't use software (with e-file) and in the past sent federal taxes on paper. Since my state and local taxes have practiced filing online for a few years now, federal return is the only one I had to send in on paper. This year I noticed "freefile" option which seems to be free without income...

A friend of mine (who lives in Canada) is in a weird situation after a pretty bad divorce. I wonder if someone on this board may have some ideas. The court's decision was that her spouse owes her some sum of money. She can't get it however, because the guy simply does not pay and claims he does...

Not to hijack the other car thread, I am curious if anyone has experience with NOT having a car in US. I realize that in many places in US a car is needed to get around to a store or any other places, but wonder if there are some places where it's not needed. New York city would be one but...

Newbie question here inspired by posters who assume millions in the 401(k)/Roth accounts: for those of us that don't have our own business, what options do we have to get more money into tax-advantaged accounts beyond: (1) ~16.5k/year limit in 401(k) (2) ~5k/year IRA (3) catch up contribution...

I have not followed this topic much but wanted to double check if my back-of-envelope calculation is right. Example: say a person receives $X of SS for 4 years from age 67 to age 70 at which point they repay it all back (4*X), "reapply" and now receive 7-8% more for each of the 4 years (based on...

I thought I was on a pretty secure computer. I did not visit any questionable sites and by nature a very suspicious computer user who does not open weird emails and links (even when the links are sent by seemingly someone I know since it could be not from them and even when it is, they are not...

I wonder if anyone here, especially US citizens living outside of USA, know and/or have experience with how IRAs are taxed by other countries? Both Traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs. In thinking about whether to get Roth IRA, I see one potential disadvantage as possibly getting taxed second time...

Here is something useful that I realized in my year-end planning... I figured I would post it both as a tip and to check my understanding if someone sees a flaw in this... In thinking more about tax loss harvesting, I recently realized that it's best to do tax loss harvesting of LT (long-term)...